Rant #2,378: Money Honey

The coronavirus has changed the way we do things, and even when this thing is over and done with, its ramifications will live on into the future.

Will we still shake hands when we greet people, we will still hug people, we will still buss people?

I simply do not know, but I think things that we did and didn't even think twice about will be thought about a bit more than before.

That leads me to the subject of this Rant, that of money.

We all love money, whether we admit to it or not.

Without money, we cannot survive.

Some people have lots of money, others have a little money, still others have nothing.

Since we live in a capitalistic world, not everyone has the same amount of money. Again, some have plenty, others have a little, and still others don't have much of anything.

And we learned this year that as the song says, money can't buy you love, it also can't buy you a presidential berth (no, Mike couldn't do it).

But whatever money the average Joe has, a good portion of it is in the bank.

My wife works in a bank as a teller. She is on the front lines of the bank, coronavirus or no coronavirus. Most people go to the bank to make deposits or take out money from their accounts, and when you do that, the person that you go to is the teller.

Due to the pandemic, every bank has had to change its work plan, and every bank in my area has gone to a plan where you can only drive up to do your business; you cannot go directly in the bank to do anything. Some have also pushed its ATM business outside, too, while others will allow you to used the ATM inside, or some allow it both ways.

My mother's bank, one of the most prominent in our area, has a drive through that only has one station for doing transactions; it has another, but it is an outdoor ATM. The station doing transactions is on the inside left, the ATM is on the outside right.

Since the bank is closed down except for drive through transactions, this has created a major problem for those needing to do banking, as most people need to do transactions, so there is a line that snakes around the bank building, with people waiting to do their business. Since the ATM is on the outside lane, it has forced people to wait on the one single line, then branch off to use the ATM if that is what they need.

But, of course, even during a pandemic, necessity is the mother of invention, so many people are skirting that protocol since they must have their money NOW. They are jumping over curbs and sidewalks with their cars, just so they can get to the ATM quicker and not have to wait like the other peons who are waiting to do transactions.

Yesterday, I took my mother to the drive through to do a transaction she needed to do, and lo and behold, most people were waiting on line patiently to do so. But, of course, some people were in a rush to get to the ATM, so they jumped the line, driving over the sidewalk and other bank landscaping to get to the machine. One driver in one of those huge cars that sone people think they need to own did just that, but he could not get past where my little Kia was, because my car was at the bend of the line where I was waiting for two people ahead of me to do their business.

The guy needing the ATM pulled up right next to me--I mean maybe a few inches away--and I looked at him in his eyes. Being the polite guy that I am, and with my mother in the car, I told him, "What do you think you are doing? Get to the back of the line like everyone else." I could have said more, and in a different way, but I had my 89 year old mother in the car. She even wanted me to open my window so she could say something to this guy in a rush, but I would not open the window for her.

Finally, the line moved, and this guy in a rush could do what he needed to do, so much in a rush to get his money.

We completed our transaction quickly and left, and when we pulled out to get to the street and get home, another car--again, a large one--evidently did not like the speed at which the car ahead of it was driving, and decided to pass it without realizing that I had just pulled out of the bank's drive through. He didn't see me, but happily, I saw him, and I just jumped on my brakes and he drove off into the sunset. I gave him a horn, happy that I saw this idiot in a rush and avoided a bad accident.

The other day, a few days before the latest episode, I also took my mother to this bank, and again waited on line, a line which was pretty long and which several cars in front of us and in back of us gave up on.

We finally got to the machine, and yes, it was a long wait. We were in the process of doing the transaction, and my mother included coins in the deal, which does, indeed, hold up doing the transaction. The bank would only take two rolls of coins at a time, and she had a few more, so it was taking us a bit longer to do what we needed to do, and the deal had to broken up into two parts.

Well, this did not sit well with the woman behind us, who started beeping and honking the horn of her car, a car which again resembled a tank in size (I have learned the the people most in a rush are those who drive big cars).

I waived my arms and told the woman to shut her trap, but I was pretty polite because my mother was in the car. If it was just me, you can only imagine what I would have said. It sure would have been a lot more "colorful" if I said what I wanted to say, but hey, like I said, I am a gentleman, even to women who are in a rush.

So after I told the woman to close her mouth and stop honking, we finally finished our transaction and left the bank. Little did I know that we would be visiting that same bank a few days later and would have to bear the brunt of other peoples' scorn who were in a rush to get to their money.

My wife's bank--known as "the country's friendliest bank"--has three rows of drive throughs, so the main problem that she has is that there is customer buildup, and cars keep coming at her every minute of the working day. Her bank's ATM is open inside the branch, and I had to use it yesterday, as her bank's branches closer to me--two of them--were closed because a worker who evidently worked at both branches came down as positive for the virus, so each of those branches is completely closed.

So I went to my wife's branch. I knew I would not see her, because she was busy handling customers coming at her from all sides. But I needed to use the ATM.

So I walked into the branch where the ATM is, in the front of the branch, the only part of the facility that is open to the public right now. A woman was at the machine before me, and once she was done with what she was doing--I waited maybe five minutes tops--I had my chance at the ATM. Two fellows behind me couldn't wait to get their money, so they left, so when I did my business, I was the only one in this area. I quickly did what I had to do and left.

When my wife came home, I asked her how the people at her bank who were waiting on lines had behaved during the past three days that she worked--she is now off for a few days, due to company coronavirus policy--and she told me that people were pretty nice, and that nobody was blowing their horns or getting crazy with impatience.

I guess it helps to have three rows of drive throughs that people can use, as opposed to the one at my mother's bank.

Yes, even during a pandemic like we are going through now. money isn't just everything, it is the only thing. Some people are really suffering through this thing, but others ...

Gimme my cash!

And nothing else matters.

Ask them what famous statesmen were on the bills that they were so eager to get their hands onto, and they probably wouldn't know.

I think those statesmen are turning in the graves at the site of a huge car jumping over a curb to get their hands on some paper with their likenesses stamped on them.

Got some Washingtons for some Hamiltons or Jacksons?